Opioid Treatment Funds In Senate Bill Would Fall Far Short Of Needs

Health InsuranceJuly 21, 2017Comments Off on Opioid Treatment Funds In Senate Bill Would Fall Far Short Of Needs

The morphine-like pain killer Oxycontin is just one of a number of opioids fueling a substance use crisis in the U.S. federal health officials say. And successful treatment for the substance use disorder can be costly.

At a lunch on Wednesday, President Trump tried to persuade some reluctant senators to endorse repealing the Affordable Care Act. During the meeting, he mentioned a provision in the Senate Republican proposal that allocates funding for opioid treatment, saying, “We’re committing $45 billion to help combat the opioid epidemic, and some states in particular like that.”

But addiction treatment specialists warn that sum of money is far from enough to address a crisis that has escalated across the United States in recent years, killing tens of thousands of people.

The federal money would be spent over about a decade, and is part of a bill that also dramatically cuts Medicaid, which is helping many people get treatment now. Those cuts will hit people in some states especially hard – those living in states that expanded the Medicaid program under the Affordable Act.

“You’re going to take a lot of people, take away their health care benefit, and basically do just a small grant to each state. It’s going to be real big problem,”